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Friday, June 13, 2014

“Dark Clouds”

Credit: NOAA

In my last posting I wrote about “rays of light,” and indeed they do
exist. But I would be remiss indeed if I were to convey a simple-mindedly
optimistic message. The somber truth is that we are facing down some
exceedingly tough situations.

For starters, there is Hezbollah. I’ve been reporting for some time
about the difficulties of this jihadist terror group. Hezbollah, based in
Lebanon, lost considerable support amongst the Lebanese when it started sending
its fighters into Syria to battle alongside Assad’s troops. Suddenly, they
were killing other Arabs instead of killing Jews as they are “supposed” to
do. This rendered them considerably less popular, especially, when Syrian
rebels, angry at being targeted by Hezbollah fighters, began shelling at
Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon.

Then there is the fact that some 350 Hezbollah fights have died in the
Syrian civil war. And there is the inability of the Assad regime, up to
its neck in fighting, to attend to supplying Hezbollah with weaponry,
transported over the border into Lebanon.

Add to Hezbollah’s current challenges the fact of Israeli deterrence.
Hezbollah "knows what will happen if it gets into conflict
with us, and that this will set Lebanon back decades," IDF Chief of Staff Benny
Gantz said just days ago at the Herzliya Conference.

The impression one has, then, is of a Hezbollah that would be exceedingly
reluctant to take on Israel. “Hezbollah is deterred,” concluded
Gantz.

~~~~~~~~~~

However, there is a huge “but” here. For Gantz also said, "there are maybe four of five countries (in the region) with
more fire power than Hezbollah. They have a tremendous fire power which covers
all of Israel." According to Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, there are
roughly 100,000 missiles and rockets in Hezbollah’s arsenal.

Worrisome, to be sure. And according to some reports, there is
concern in the Israeli military that for the first time, Hezbollah, which has
been training for this, might take the battle into Israeli territory.

This does not mean anything will happen tomorrow. Nor is there
ultimately any concern about the Israeli military besting Hezbollah
forces. Hezbollah has placed a large portion of its arsenal in civilian
areas, but Israel has let it be known that it will have to go after those
arsenals nonetheless. Were there to be war, action from the air would be
swift and fierce, of necessity.

"Our ability today to attack targets on a large scale
and with high precision is about 15 times greater than what we did in the (2006)
war," Eshel said. He indicated intense fighting was necessary to keep the
duration of the conflict short "because the more protracted the war, the more
missiles we'll be hit with here".

As well, there would likely be a speedy ground action.

Reassuring. However, with all of this said, complacency with regard
to this situation is not advised.

~~~~~~~~~~

I cannot revisit this subject, even now, without expressing my fury at then
prime minister Ehud Olmert and then foreign minister Tzipi Livni. It
didn’t have to be this way. Olmert – who vacillated terribly - was
unwilling to see the 2006 war in Lebanon to a successful conclusion, which would
have meant taking out Hezbollah. And Livni bragged about her part in
setting up UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which called for UNIFIL to stop
Hezbollah from re-arming. Trust the UN to protect us. Right...

~~~~~~~~~~

As to Syria, reports out of the Herzliya Conference indicate the civil war
shows no signs of abating.

Israel truly is between a rock and a hard place with regard to a Syrian
policy. For some time, it was felt in many quarters here that the greatest
danger was Assad, because of the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis. The problem is
that a very large part of the rebels (80% by some estimates) are jihadists, who
have their eye on Israel next. For this reason, the presence of rebel
forces at the border of the Golan is carefully monitored. These are not Syrian
nationalists fighting for a better Syria. They have international aspirations
with regard to a caliphate – a Middle East, at the very least, united under
Islamic law. What is more, a good number of the rebel fighters have come from
beyond Syria (many are Europeans, but some Arabs who are Israeli citizens have
gone to fight).

See this report by Ari Soffer on the Syrian rebels:

“Although the Syrian opposition is primarily
comprised of Sunni Muslims (Syria's majority population), rebel battalions are
far from ideologically homogeneous. They range from Al Qaeda to the Muslim
Brotherhood, and from privately-funded Salafist brigades to groups still
ostensibly committed to a secular Syrian state...”

And lastly, there are Hamas and smaller Islamists groups in Gaza. In
addition to the 100,000 rockets and missiles said to be in the possession of
Hezbollah, it is estimated that the Gaza groups, most particularly Hamas, have
another 70,000. This according to Itai Brun,
director of research in the Israel Defense Forces Intelligence branch, among
others.

Yesterday afternoon, a rocket was launched from Gaza
into southern Israel. Israel responded with an airstrike late last night
that took out 33-year-old Mohammad Awwar, who had
al-Qaeda connections. He has participated in many terror attacks, said the
Shin Bet, and was planning more.

And here I must ask a question: Would we have hit Awwar last night if there
had not been a rocket launched? If he was known to be planning additional
attacks – and his whereabouts were known – how long would we have waited?

Be that as it may, the position of Israel right now is that Abbas, as head
of the unity government, has responsibility for the rocket, must take over Gaza,
and eliminate the rocket cache.

While the US does not hold the PA responsible, unity government or not.
Said State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said: “we
acknowledge the reality that Hamas currently controls Gaza.”

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Caroline Glick & Mark Levin: The Israeli Solution -- A One-State Pla

Why Israel Opposes International Forces in the Jordan Valley

U.S. scholars' group votes in favor of academic boycott of Israel

Yet another indication of the absolute corruption of American academia today. "US scholars' group votes in favor of academic boycott of Israel," from the Jerusalem Post, December 16: NEW YORK – The 5,000-member American Studies Association (ASA), which describes itself as “the nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to...http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/12/us-scholars-group-votes-in-favor-of-academic-boycott-of-israel.html

Israel Living Prophecy

A senior New Israel Fund officer told a U.S. official in 2010 that the disappearance of the Jewish state would not be a tragedy, according to a document that was leaked by Wikileaks...She commented that she believed that in 100 years Israel would be majority Arab and that the disappearance of a Jewish state would not be the tragedy that Israelis fear since it would become more democratic.

Mideast expert Michael Widlanski: Fatah is a joke

US-Israeli talks focus on Ahmadinejad's possible ouster

How to exploit the deep cracks forming in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration for removing the Iranian president was a top item on the agenda of the high-level talks between Barack Obama's advisers and Israeli officials at Mossad headquarters in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, Wednesday, July 29.

DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report that Ahmadinejad's cabinet is falling apart; of his original lineup of 21 ministers, only nine remain at their posts.

The Identity Of The Land

Why the Palestinians need to recognize the Jewish State

We do NOT support a 2-state solution

A January 2009 poll found that Americans oppose creating a Palestinian state by 45-31 percent. A February 2009 Maagar Mohot Survey Institute poll has also shown that Israelis oppose creating a Palestinian state by 51-32 percent.

Many other polls tell a similar story.

These figures suggest that Americans and Israelis have understood that creating a Palestinian state under current conditions will not bring peace but merely another terror state.

Netanya,Israel

Jerusalem At Night

Why reconstruct Gaza without making demands

- that Shalit be release without convicted terrorists being released by Israel in exchange,

- that the US be put in charge of the southern border to ensure that Hamas isn’t rearmed?

- that their three preconditions be accepted by Hamas, i.e. agree to all former agreements,recognize Israel and renounce terror

- that Hamas amend their Charter

- That Hamas disconnect from Iran

The answer is that they don’t want to.

Children of Hamas

Picture of Hamas children the media does not show you

IDF: Civilian Deaths in Gaza Less than 25% of Total

A maximum of 25% of the Palestinians killed in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli operation are innocent civilians, the head of the IDF's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA), Col. Moshe Levi, said Wednesday. According to Palestinian medical officials, Israel has killed some 1,000 Palestinians and more than half of them are civilians. Levi said the CLA had compiled a list with the names of 900 Palestinians killed during the fighting. He said that 150 names were of women, children and elderly, and that the maximum number of civilians killed so far was 250. Levi also dismissed claims that 43 Palestinians were killed in an IDF attack on a Hamas terror cell that was firing mortars at Israeli forces from within an UNRWA school in Jabalya. Levi said 21 Palestinians were killed in the attack, including a number of Hamas operatives. (Jerusalem Post)

Hamas teaching the children of Gaza

An Iranian reformist daily newspaper has criticized Hamas "for risking lives of civilians, amongst them children, by hiding its forces in nurseries and hospitals." This is reported in today's Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam. The Palestinian daily adds that in response the Iranian government has closed the newspaper.

"The Iranian news agency "Irna" reported yesterday, that the Iranian Culture Ministry has closed the reformist daily newspaper "Karjo Zaran", because it published a report that included criticism of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). On December 30 the paper published a statement of a reformist student organization, that has criticized Hamas for risking lives of civilians, amongst them children, by hiding its forces in nurseries and hospitals. The statement was published whilst the Iranian government expresses a unified stands against Israel, and Tehran is overwhelmed by demonstrations against Israel."

[Al-Ayyam, Jan. 1, 2009] Thanks PMW

Iran-backed Hamas Rocket, Mortar Attacks and Nuclear Developments

9,400+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2003. [1]3,200+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza in 2008 alone. [2]6,500+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. [3]543+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israeli territory during the ceasefire from June 19 to Dec. 19, 2008. [4]28 deaths caused by rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel since 2001. The dead include Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire ended, Iran-backed Palestinian groups in Gaza fired rockets and mortars that killed an Israeli-Arab construction worker and a mother of four who was seeking shelter in a bus station as a rocket warning siren sounded. [5]1,000+ people in Israel injured from rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2001, including Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire, 44 Israelis have been injured and 200 have been treated for shock. [6]Thanks Israel Project

It began with this...

The British Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917Dear Lord Rothschild,I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate theachievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities inPalestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.2

Signed,Arthur James Balfour[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]

Favorite Books

While Europe Slept

About Me

Semi-retired Professor, now also permanent resident of Israel;divides time between both countries-serves on several Boards of Directors for Israel advocacy groups;Chana, resident of Jerusalem, JCPA member

Syria is an Occupier-Are You Listening World?

As of this minute, Syria occupies at least 177 square miles of Lebanese soil. That you are now reading about it for the first time is as much a scandal as the occupation itself.

The news comes by way of a fact-finding survey of the Lebanese-Syrian border just produced by the International Lebanese Committee for UN Security Council Resolution 1559, an American NGO that has consultative status with the UN. In meticulous detail - supplemented by photographs and satellite images - the authors describe precisely where and how Lebanon has been infiltrated.

Though the land grabs are small affairs individually, they collectively add up to an area amounting to about 4% of Lebanese soil - in U.S. terms, the proportional equivalent of Arizona. Of particular note is that the area of Syrian conquest dwarves that of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms which amount to an area of about 12 square miles.

It would be nice to see the Arab world protest this case of illegal occupation, given its passions about the subject.

Information worth Possessing

"Israel gave the Palestinians an autonomy in 42% of the West Bank and Gaza after the Oslo accords in the early 90's. Over 92% of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza were then under the administration of the Palestinian Authority and its Chairman Yasser Arafat.

"Israel is surrounded by 10 hostile Arab countries who do not even recognize its right to exist ( Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Lybia, Morocco, Tunisia, Aden) and Iran"